Talk about a man who inspires you! After reading The Art of Seeing, by John Burroughs I felt like a completely refreshed, renewed person. Every word he spilled out of the page was so beautifully written, and put together.
To be more specific, there were some quotes I pulled out of his work which really hit home with me more than the others. On page 146, the first page of his piece, he says, "The secret, no doubt, is love of the sport...what we love to do, that we do well. To know is not all; it is only half. To love is the other half". AMAZING. I feel like Burroughs hit it right on the head here. This is something that I have been struggling with a lot lately. Being as I am going into the field of education, in hopes of one day being a middle school english teacher, I hear a lot about how much the job market is suffering, and how I'm going to have a terribly hard time finding work once I graduate. While, yes, this may be the case, I have a lot of peers who are contemplating switching their major because of this job issue. I can't help but think that is a mistake. "The secret, no doubt, is the love of the sport". Teaching students, in this case, is the sport that I love. I can't imagine myself pursuing a career in anything BUT teaching. Taking what Burrough's said, and twisting it around a little bit, I feel like if you love what you do, and are truly passionate about it, you will be successful and do it well. He flat out says that half of "the secret" is to love. If we love what we do, we will figure the logistics out along the way.
Another line of this piece that I really connected with is on page 147 where Burrough's states, "Love is the measure of life; only so far as we love do we really live".
To a point, this quote also lines up with the previous one I discussed, with the common theme being love. "Only so far as we love do we really life". That may be one of the most beautiful sayings I have ever read. Without love we are nothing, we can't really live and experience life to the fullest without loving every minute along the way. If we don't love our "sport", love the nature around us, love our families, or friends...what are we really doing here in life?
Love is the common denominator.
Well written. And I think many of us were affected similarly by Burroughs's words. :)
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